GoodGym Tech and what's next

GoodGym's CTO Russell is now about six month's into the job. Here he shares some of his plans for what's next with the website and describes what he's looking for in a new developer:

Hi all, I wanted to share with you some of the really exciting stuff we have planned in the tech team at GoodGym!

I joined GoodGym as CTO in October last year. A strange time to start a new job, but it has been an absolute joy. It’s so inspiring seeing all the great things you all do, and everyone I’ve (in most cases, virtually) met has been absolutely lovely. Now, six months in, I think I’ve developed enough of an understanding of how GoodGym works to start making some large-scale improvements.

The biggest change we have on the horizon is the introduction of a new technology, React. This is the technology used to build Facebook, and it’s going to help us make the GoodGym website much faster, more interactive, and more user-friendly. It’s going to make a huge difference. We’ve already made some good progress, and we’ll be looking for people to beta-test the new version in the coming months, so if that’s something you’d be interested in, watch this space :-)

As part of the introduction of React, we have the opportunity to revisit the design and layout of the website. A common request we get from GoodGym runners is for a mobile app. Unfortunately, as we’re a very small team, we don’t have the time to build an app and a website - it’s almost double the work. What we can do is to make the website much more mobile-friendly, and make it look and behave more like an app on mobile. This is exactly what we plan to do. We’re going to build pages so they work on mobile first, and only then add enhancements that can make the most of the space available on large screens.

Another exciting plan enabled by our adoption of React: as this will split the frontend and backend of the GoodGym website into separate codebases, it gives us the opportunity to safely open-source our frontend code. I’m really excited about this! It will mean that, for the tech-minded among you, if you want a new feature or if there’s annoying issue you’d like to fix, and you don’t want to wait for us - you can code it yourself. The GoodGym backend will expose a GraphQL API giving you a lot of flexibility. We can’t wait to see what you come up with! You could even create that mobile app, if you have the time on your hands….

So, lots of big fun stuff to come. We’re going to need some help to make it a reality. So we’re looking for a senior or mid-level React developer, who will be an integral part of this new chapter of the GoodGym website. You can find the job posting here: https://www.goodgym.org/stories/react-developer-wanted. If you’re interested, please apply ASAP, as we’re conducting interviews on a rolling basis. And if you’re not a React developer but you know someone who is, please forward on this link!

Looking forward to having more to share with you all soon :-)
Thanks,
Russell

_{Images above by Thomas Tastet}